


Scars And All

by tuppenny



Series: Scars [4]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Hospital Visit, References to Sex, brief minor injury and blood, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 12:10:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14873504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuppenny/pseuds/tuppenny
Summary: Katherine's bachelorette party takes an unexpected turn.(If you don't want the first story in this series to be spoiled, don't read this one first!)





	Scars And All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carbon65](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carbon65/gifts).



> Pigeon requested "a follow up where Emmy takes Katherine for a bachelorette party and Katherine picks up a new scar to explain to Jack," so here we are!

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Jack said, walking Katherine to the door of his apartment, where Emmy was already waiting to leave for Katherine’s bachelorette party.

“If anyone needs that advice, it’s you,” Katherine said primly. “We’re going to dinner with my girlfriends and then we’re doing one of those ‘drink wine and paint stuff’ parties. What kind of trouble do you think we’re going to get into?”

“Ya c’n always get inta trouble if ya try hard enough,” Jack shrugged.

“That’s  _you_ , Jackie dear, not me.”

He grinned, pulled her in for a quick kiss, and then shoved her and his sister out into the hallway. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said teasingly, and Emmy snorted.

“Really low bar, there, Jackdaw.”

He stuck his tongue out at Emmy and closed the door in their faces, leaving the girls to it.

“Ready for some fun, Kit-Kat?”

“Lead the way,” Katherine said, walking slightly ahead of Emmy to press the button for the elevator.

“So who’s coming?” Emmy asked, adjusting her forearm crutches.

“My sisters, my college roommates, and a couple of girls from the office. Should be about nine or ten of us, all told.”

“Sounds fun!”

Katherine smiled. “I haven’t had a night out in ages, what with all this crazy political news they’ve had me covering; I’m looking forward to it.”

“Well, you’ve earned a break. The girls and I will make sure ya have a good time.”

They did, too. They started by regaling each other with their most absurd Jack and Katherine stories, which could’ve lasted for hours; Katherine blushed and laughed and groaned and finally just shrugged. “Okay, fine, so we were idiots,” she said, taking another sip of her margarita. “But hey—we got there in the end.”

Nina, one of Kath’s college roommates, leaned across the table. “Please tell me you two communicate better now!”

“That’s not fair!” Katherine said, a little defensively. “We talk all the time about everything! We always have, too—thank goodness for unlimited data plans.” She took in Nina’s raised eyebrow and said, “We  _do!_  We talk all the time! We’re just not good at talking about…” She laughed. “Well, as Jack would say, we’re just not good at talking about emotions an’ shit.” She raised her hands in an ‘oh well’ gesture and spun the Lazy Susan so she could serve herself another helping of bok choy.

“You two talk about emotions,” Emmy protested. “Just not… how you feel about each other.”

Nina rolled her eyes. “Kath. Come on.”

Katherine pouted. “We’re working on it! Look, Nee, this is supposed to be a fun night; lay off already.”

“Sorry,” Nina said, flagging down the waiter and gesturing for him to bring Katherine an apology margarita.

The next stop was the painting party, which Katherine’s sisters, Edie and Connie, had selected mostly because they thought Katherine would genuinely enjoy it, but also a little bit because they thought it would be hilarious to have Katherine try her hand at something her fiancé did professionally.

“You can hang it up in your apartment!” Edie said, setting down her merlot and clapping excitedly at the instructor’s finished demo canvas of a palm tree silhouetted by a sunset.

“Or it could be a wedding present to Jack!” Connie added, smiling wickedly and jabbing Katherine in the arm. “I know how much you two love clichés!”

“Just glue a photo of you in that skimpy bikini down at the bottom and he’ll  _love_ it,” said Abby, another of Katherine’s college pals. “You know, the one you wore when you guys went to Bali?”

Katherine snorted, but in amusement rather than dismissal. “That’s true; he’ll love just about anything that includes a photo of me in that skimpy bikini,” she said, picking up her paintbrush.

“Try gluin’ it to vegetables,” Emmy said wryly. “Maybe he’ll finally end his war on green food.”

“Will he eat green eggs and ham?” Connie asked, grinning. “You could always start there.”

“And if he won’t eat them,” Edie chipped in, “You can hand him a book explaining why he’s wrong.”

“That’s the secret to a fantastic marriage,” Liv, one of Katherine’s coworkers, said, her tone signaling that everything she was saying was tongue-in-cheek. “Always tell him when he’s wrong. Make sure to do it as loudly as possible, as often as possible, and as publicly as possible; that’s the best recipe for maximum love. Oh, and never miss a chance to do all of that in creative ways. Organize flash mobs, custom order M&Ms printed with your opinion, rearrange the letters on a theater marquee to spell out just how wrong he is. And  _Green Eggs and Ham_? Perfect!  _Definitely_  bring classic children’s literature into your marital fights!”

“So glad I’ve got you ladies to advise me,” Katherine laughed, taking a sip of her wine as they waited for the instructor to introduce herself and get things started.

The middle-aged woman running the class was buoyant and kind and painstakingly clear with her instructions, which made it even funnier for all of Katherine’s friends—and Katherine herself—to see that Katherine was hopelessly, irredeemably bad at art. The paint ran, she mixed her colors all wrong, the sunset looked like a psychedelic horror movie, and the palm tree was a dead ringer for a dead octopus.

“How did you  _do_  that?” Emmy asked in wonder, setting her paintbrush down to gawk at Katherine’s failed beach scene.

“I don’t  _know_ ,” Katherine moaned, covering her eyes.

“Jack always says everyone can do art,” Emmy mused, leaning in closer to see if the squiggles in the sunset were birds or tragically lost earthworms. “Guess he was wrong.”

Nina slid off of her stool to look at it herself, saying, “Oh, surely it can’t be that bad?” She stood behind Katherine for a moment, staring at the canvas, and then said slowly, “Huh. It’s actually worse.”

“Nee!” Katherine protested, smacking her friend in the arm. “That’s not very nice!”

“No,” Nina agreed, “But neither is your painting.”

“It’s so bad,” Katherine said, making a face. “My gosh, a blind anteater could do better.”

“And they don’t even have opposable thumbs,” Edie added, joining the cluster around Katherine.

“It’s not as if mine were any help,” Katherine said, looking glumly at her thumbs, which were covered in paint.

“Best wedding present ever,” Connie said sagely, crossing her arms and taking in the view.

The instructor walked by then, interested to see what the commotion was all about. “Oh!” She said, then tried to cover up her shock with cheeriness. “What a unique interpretation! You really made it your own!”

“I sure did,” Katherine said, starting to giggle. The instructor nodded and moved on, but Katherine’s giggles only intensified. “It’s  _so bad,”_  she said, choking the words out between laughs.

“I can’t wait to hear what Jack thinks of it,” said Portia, another of Katherine’s co-workers. “Five bucks says he lies to you and pretends to like it.”

“Ten says he insults Kath,” said Keiko, another college roommate. “Any takers?”

“Five on him being too stunned to speak,” Abby said, washing her paintbrush and switching from pink to orange. “Who’s keeping track of all of these?”

“Me,” said Emmy, whipping out her phone to type everything up. “Any other bets?”

“Ten on him just laughing!” Edie said, eyeing Katherine, who had reached the point where she was laughing so hard that she was crying.

“Ten on him kissing her,” Liv said with a smile.

“Five on him throwing that abomination right in the trash,” Nina said, her eyes dancing.

“Connie?” Emmy asked, looking up from her phone. “Any bets?”

“I’m staying out of this,” Connie said, hands raised. “Jack’s too unpredictable for me.”

Katherine gathered herself enough to weigh in. “He’s—he’s—oh my gosh, it hurts, why am I still laughing, I…” Katherine clutched her stomach and started laughing again. “Oh nooo, oh, ouch,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut to avoid looking at her painting. “He’s pretty predictable,” she managed, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “He’s going to curse, and then he’s going to give me a hug.”

Emmy grinned. “How much on that?”

“Fifty,” Katherine said, making the mistake of opening her eyes and looking at her artwork again. “Oh, it’s awful,” she said, laughing even harder. She began to wobble on her flimsy little artist’s stool as she laughed, and it wasn’t long before she lost her balance completely, toppling sideways onto the floor.

Her laughter stopped abruptly as she realized she was falling, and although she managed not to knock into Emmy as she fell, she couldn’t avoid doing a little damage to herself. Unfortunately for Katherine, the wine glass in her hand shattered when it hit the wooden floor, forcing her to break her fall against slivers of glass.

“Aaaa!” She yelled, feeling a sharp pain across the heel of her hand.

“Kitty!” Connie sank to her knees and pulled Katherine into a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

“Ouch,” Katherine said weakly, holding her hand out for her sister to see. “That… doesn’t look good.”

“No,” Connie agreed. “It really doesn’t. Um. I think we’d better get you to the ER.”

“Okay,” Katherine said, slightly dazed, staring at the mess of her palm. “Connie? It… it hurts…”

“I know, sweetie,” Connie said soothingly, hoisting Katherine up and shooting a look at Edie. “Call Jack?”

Edie nodded and whipped out her cell phone as Connie ushered Katherine to the door and hailed a cab. Emmy grabbed her elbow crutches, asked Edie to grab Katherine’s painting, and then they hustled out after Connie and Katherine, sliding into the remaining seats of the car.

By the time they’d checked into the ER and were sitting to fill out the intake forms, Katherine’s lightheadedness had faded, leaving her conscious of the pain but mercifully more grounded. A nurse had given her some gauze to wrap her hand in to replace the paint rag that Connie had grabbed on their way out of the art studio, and Katherine was doing her level best to resist the temptation to peel back the layers and peek at the injury once more.

“Baby!” Jack’s voice rang through the busy waiting room, and he was by Katherine’s side in an instant, kneeling in front of her to hold her uninjured hand. “I toldja not ta get inta trouble, an’ this is pretty much the opposite of that! What the hell did—” He paused at the sight of the lightly bloody gauze on Katherine’s left hand. “Fuck, girlie, what happened?”

“Cut my hand. Probably going to need stitches. I’m fine, though,” she said, leaning forward to kiss his messy hair in reassurance. “What really needs help is my painting,” she said, gesturing to her canvas, which Emmy had insisted that Edie prop up on the seat next to Katherine. “What’s your professional opinion, Dr. Kelly? Can it be saved?”

Jack turned to look at the painting, his eyes widening. “Fuckin’ hell,” he breathed, “That is the ugliest piece of shit I’s ever seen.” He looked back at her and grinned. “I love ya so fuckin’ much, baby. So much.” He wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug, resting his chin on her shoulder and laughing into her hair. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered, and she squeezed him back in response to the tremor in his voice.

“I’m totally fine,” she said, fully in control of herself again now that he was here. He brought everything back into focus for her; even the ER didn’t seem so scary when Jack was there. “I’m going to leave the art to you from now on, though.”

“Please do,” he said fervently, casting another quick glance at the painting and trying very hard not to snicker.

“Should I go toss it now?” Emmy asked, moving to grab the painting.

“No!” Her brother said quickly. “No. I wants ta hang it in our first apartment t’gether.” He smiled as Katherine smacked him gently with her good hand. “It makes me laugh,” he explained. “C’n we keep it?”

“Ugh,” said Katherine, rolling her eyes for show. “If you insist.”

“I do,” said Jack, ignoring all of the tip-tapping noises Emmy was making on her phone as she settled up all of the bachelorette party bets that he wasn’t aware of.

“It’s going to scar, you know,” Katherine said, pulling away from him and frowning down at her wrapped hand. “The cuts are mostly too long or too deep to heal nicely.”

“Well, you’s gonna hafta tell me about each one of ‘em, then,” he said, his lips quirking upwards. “Over an’ over. In bed. While I fuck ya.”

“Jack Kelly!” Katherine said, her jaw dropping. “Your sister is right there!”

“Cover your ears, Emmy,” he said, starting to laugh at the dismayed look on his sister’s face.

“Ugh, Jack, I’m scarred for life,” Emmy groaned, twisting her lips in disgust.

“Ain’t we all, Emmybird,” Jack said with a wink, turning back to Katherine. He pulled her wrapped hand to his lips and kissed the gauze tenderly. “But it’s our scars what brought us t’gether, girlie,” he said, his voice dropping low. “An’ damn if I don’t love ‘em for it.”

“Me, too,” she said, smiling at him. “Worth every injury.”

Emmy clapped a hand to her heart as Jack pulled Katherine in for a kiss. “They’re perfect together, aren’t they?” She said, looking over at Connie and Edie. “Scars and all?”

“They’re just right,” Edie said, and Connie nodded. “Scars and all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Katherine, you goof! Stay away from wobbly stools!


End file.
